Western Conference Preview

[theograce]

Bolduc is a good winger, people are acting like he's a departed hall of famer.

People would do that with Snuggerud or Neighbours too.

Time will tell how everything plays out. Bolduc has an opportunity to build towards being a fan favorite in MTL. He must be right pumped for this

If you're trading one of those three it's Bolduc every time. You keep the Minnesota Sniper and Neighbours over him

I’d probably agree. But it has to play out. Bolduc may very well turn out to be a better skating Perron. I guess we will see what happens

[rezero]

Bolduc is a good winger, people are acting like he's a departed hall of famer.

People would do that with Snuggerud or Neighbours too.

Time will tell how everything plays out. Bolduc has an opportunity to build towards being a fan favorite in MTL. He must be right pumped for this

If you're trading one of those three it's Bolduc every time. You keep the Minnesota Sniper and Neighbours over him

Only time will tell. Bolduc had a mean streak that is necessary to complete at a high level on this league, not sure the other two possess that trait. In 2-3 years we will know how good or bad the trade was.

[theograce]

Bolduc is a good winger, people are acting like he's a departed hall of famer.

People would do that with Snuggerud or Neighbours too.

Time will tell how everything plays out. Bolduc has an opportunity to build towards being a fan favorite in MTL. He must be right pumped for this

If you're trading one of those three it's Bolduc every time. You keep the Minnesota Sniper and Neighbours over him

Only time will tell. Bolduc had a mean streak that is necessary to complete at a high level on this league, not sure the other two possess that trait. In 2-3 years we will know how good or bad the trade was.

Snuggerud looked scared when pushed on a few times. Similar to Broberg. They will need to change that

[TruBlueFan_1970]

Nobody wants to hear my drivel about each team, so I’ll just summarize some quick thoughts and then make my picks, way too early. Thanks to the OP….fun topic.

- EDM still cream of the crop until somebody shows otherwise
- VGK, WPG remain in the next tier
- DAL to me are a bit weaker and fall in with Avs, Minny
- LA, Blues, Utah, Calgary, VAN battle for 2 remaining spots

Central
WPG
Minny
Dallas
Avs
Blues
--------------------
Utah
Nashville
Chicago

Pacific
Edmonton
Vegas
LA
--------------------
Vancouver
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
San Jose

[Harry S Deals]

Nobody wants to hear my drivel about each team, so I’ll just summarize some quick thoughts and then make my picks, way too early. Thanks to the OP….fun topic.

- EDM still cream of the crop until somebody shows otherwise
- VGK, WPG remain in the next tier
- DAL to me are a bit weaker and fall in with Avs, Minny
- LA, Blues, Utah, Calgary, VAN battle for 2 remaining spots

Central
WPG
Minny
Dallas
Avs
Blues
--------------------
Utah
Nashville
Chicago

Pacific
Edmonton
Vegas
LA
--------------------
Vancouver
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
San Jose

Good post, this could be pretty accurate Minny has a pretty loaded roster right now and i like the adding Tarasenko in this case. I am not sure what to expect from Winterpeg #1 may be a reach this season. If they are counting heavily on Toews... hmmm. Utah will be a tough team to beat in my view i see a dog fight between Dal, Col, STL and Utah for the 3rd spot. How this plays out will be fun to see

The Blues are a bit of a wildcard for me right now no pun intended the point range for the Blues is wide a lot can happen. On the up side, Monty should continue his coaching performance right where they left off a nice 95+ pt pace however its hockey and like any teams injuries could easily derail the Blues because their depth players today are a bit fringe and or talented kids.

Personally i think the Blues are going to be a fun and exciting team to watch, the Blues top 2 lines are rock solid producers the 4th line was a weapon to be deployed at opponents dismay. The 3rd line could be interesting with Neighbours perhaps Dvorsky, Joseph, Texier if the Blues want to be 100+ pts then the 3rd line needs to also be very solid right now its an evolving plan.

The D corp could now be one of the real highlights for the roster Broberg will be a monster, Fowler and CP are a legit top pairing. Tucker is improving, positional physical guy and if Mailloux can keep it simple and find his game, watch out. I see LM as becoming a fan favorite at some point whether its Oct '25 or Christmas of '26-'27 idk. LM as everyone knows has an elite toolbox but hes a raw product that will get on the job training. I expect the Blues will deploy Mike Weber, Al MacInnis maybe even Pronger to work with LM on his game. Good things will come.

[dr0zombie]

Nobody wants to hear my drivel about each team, so I’ll just summarize some quick thoughts and then make my picks, way too early. Thanks to the OP….fun topic.

- EDM still cream of the crop until somebody shows otherwise
- VGK, WPG remain in the next tier
- DAL to me are a bit weaker and fall in with Avs, Minny
- LA, Blues, Utah, Calgary, VAN battle for 2 remaining spots

Central
WPG
Minny
Dallas
Avs
Blues
--------------------
Utah
Nashville
Chicago

Pacific
Edmonton
Vegas
LA
--------------------
Vancouver
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
San Jose

Great post.

In the Central I think Winnipeg will struggle without Ehlers and I feel their depth is overrated. As much as I don’t like Dallas, I feel they have better team depth than most in the west and can cover their losses better than the hockey press predicts. I would list AVS and STARS as a 1A/1B to take the Central. And I am all in with 100% of the Blues potential players just breaking out in a huge way.

In the Pacific I seem to be the odd man out, but I really feel Edmonton is in for a fall. The grind without winning has to take a tool at some point. They struggled at times last year. Not a huge Vegas fan, but I envision a crazy when the NHL first got Russians level offensive passing from Marner and Eichel. They are going to look like they are psychically linked with their passing. I also feel like the Petro loss is being overrated in the hockey press.

Central
AVS
STARS
BLUES
JETS
UTAH
--------
Minnesota
Nashville
Chicago


Pacific
VGK
KINGS
OILERS
--------------------
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
Vancouver
San Jose

[Harry S Deals]

Nobody wants to hear my drivel about each team, so I’ll just summarize some quick thoughts and then make my picks, way too early. Thanks to the OP….fun topic.

- EDM still cream of the crop until somebody shows otherwise
- VGK, WPG remain in the next tier
- DAL to me are a bit weaker and fall in with Avs, Minny
- LA, Blues, Utah, Calgary, VAN battle for 2 remaining spots

Central
WPG
Minny
Dallas
Avs
Blues
--------------------
Utah
Nashville
Chicago

Pacific
Edmonton
Vegas
LA
--------------------
Vancouver
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
San Jose

Great post.

In the Central I think Winnipeg will struggle without Ehlers and I feel their depth is overrated. As much as I don’t like Dallas, I feel they have better team depth than most in the west and can cover their losses better than the hockey press predicts. I would list AVS and STARS as a 1A/1B to take the Central. And I am all in with 100% of the Blues potential players just breaking out in a huge way.

In the Pacific I seem to be the odd man out, but I really feel Edmonton is in for a fall. The grind without winning has to take a tool at some point. They struggled at times last year. Not a huge Vegas fan, but I envision a crazy when the NHL first got Russians level offensive passing from Marner and Eichel. They are going to look like they are psychically linked with their passing. I also feel like the Petro loss is being overrated in the hockey press.

Central
AVS
STARS
BLUES
JETS
UTAH
--------
Minnesota
Nashville
Chicago


Pacific
VGK
KINGS
OILERS
--------------------
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
Vancouver
San Jose

Man how does Minn end up 6th, a ton of injuries?

[dr0zombie]

Nobody wants to hear my drivel about each team, so I’ll just summarize some quick thoughts and then make my picks, way too early. Thanks to the OP….fun topic.

- EDM still cream of the crop until somebody shows otherwise
- VGK, WPG remain in the next tier
- DAL to me are a bit weaker and fall in with Avs, Minny
- LA, Blues, Utah, Calgary, VAN battle for 2 remaining spots

Central
WPG
Minny
Dallas
Avs
Blues
--------------------
Utah
Nashville
Chicago

Pacific
Edmonton
Vegas
LA
--------------------
Vancouver
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
San Jose

Great post.

In the Central I think Winnipeg will struggle without Ehlers and I feel their depth is overrated. As much as I don’t like Dallas, I feel they have better team depth than most in the west and can cover their losses better than the hockey press predicts. I would list AVS and STARS as a 1A/1B to take the Central. And I am all in with 100% of the Blues potential players just breaking out in a huge way.

In the Pacific I seem to be the odd man out, but I really feel Edmonton is in for a fall. The grind without winning has to take a tool at some point. They struggled at times last year. Not a huge Vegas fan, but I envision a crazy when the NHL first got Russians level offensive passing from Marner and Eichel. They are going to look like they are psychically linked with their passing. I also feel like the Petro loss is being overrated in the hockey press.

Central
AVS
STARS
BLUES
JETS
UTAH
--------
Minnesota
Nashville
Chicago


Pacific
VGK
KINGS
OILERS
--------------------
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
Vancouver
San Jose

Man how does Minn end up 6th, a ton of injuries?

I don't think Minny did enough in the offseason. Minny added Vladimir Tarasenko and their hopeful keep saying this is the year Kaprizov will become equivalent to Kucherov, MacKinnon, McDavid, and so on. Kirill Kaprizov is a great player, just not that level. Utah is ready to move up. I believe the Blues have added to their team in the right places to perform better this year. I think the odd team here is Minnesota.

Sportsnet's new power rankings. If Utah can come out of the gate hot they will make the playoffs and someone has to switch places with them. - https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nh ... ff-season/

[callitwhatyouwant]

the west is definitely a league dictated by your start. The teams are too good top to almost bottom. You will have to get off to a good start if you want any shot at the top 3 spots. After that it becomes a real barn burner from 4-10. I don't think any of the teams from 5-10 last year digressed enough to not be a playoff caliber team, and most got better. Those things get scary. The West completely beat up on the East last year. Which is ironic with how it turned out.

[stlblue06]

Good thing Nashville’s crazy spending spree last offseason backfired as I was struggling to find a spot for the Blues going into last season.

With Vancouver showing how much they overachieved 2 years ago to go along with new problems helps out a lot.

I’ve been waiting for WPG to fall off for a while and they keep doing the opposite. So I’m going to put them in as a playoff lock.

Playoff teams that have a legit chance to miss:

1) Colorado is absolutely one of those teams that could miss the playoffs if one of their top guys goes down or they don’t get top quality regular season goaltending from Blackwell.

2) Minnesota feels like a bubble team at this point. I want to say this was their second season in a row that they were a top team in the NHL for the first 3 months then fell off. They do have goaltending, so maybe a top bubble team.

Of all of the bubble teams, Utah improved the most but they still need to prove themselves.


The Blues: The start for them is huge. 3 straight seasons of 500. Hockey through January is not a good formula

[a smell of green grass]

In summary…
Army’s team is so boring and weak, he can’t find the time to write anything. Because even if he did, no one would read it.

And then his one comment is that Dvorsky is the great C hope. Then says nothing regarding how he us performing currently.

Carry on, Army Moms. Its best that you just stay in your shell.

[seattleblue]

Doug Armstrong is bad because he didn't do a prospect writeup, and the only reason for that is bad faith and failure, says (bleep) McShortbus

[SRV1990]

Doug Armstrong is bad because he didn't do a prospect writeup, and the only reason for that is bad faith and failure, says (bleep) McShortbus

And if that idiot's braindead thoughts aren't bad enough, there's another idiot who actually thinks players who have made it to the NHL are actually scared of other players and/or situations during games. If I hadn't read it myself and someone told me another poster made that comment, I wouldn't believe them.